Psychophysiological Effects of Several Stress Management Techniques

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychophysiological stress-reducing properties of progressive relaxation compared with hypnosis, and deep abdominal breathing compared with a baseline condition, while controlling for hypnotizability. 231 nursing students experienced the baseline procedure and progressive relaxation in Session 1 and deep abdominal breathing and hypnosis in Session 2 about a week later. Before and after each technique peripheral skin temperature and pulse rate were assessed. Separate analyses of variance, computed for the first and second sets of techniques, indicated that progressive relaxation and hypnosis both increased skin temperature and reduced pulse rate, suggesting reduced psychophysiological responsivity. Deep abdominal breathing was associated with a significant reduction in physiological responsivity (skin temperature) relative to baseline. Hypnotic susceptibility had no effect on the psychophysiological measures.

Autonomic Responses to Suggestions for Cold and Warmth in Hypnosis

“…The heart rate was only slightly affected in all subjects in all phases. Hypnotic susceptibility did not correlate with the psychophysiological measures [10,26]. We also found no association between the changes in fingertip skin temperature and in the three other autonomic variables induced by the cold and warmth suggestions and the hypnotizability score measured by the`Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale for Adults' [20].…”

“…Hypnoid relaxation reduces respiration frequency, but does not affect heart rate [21], a result we confirmed in our study during trance induction. In contrast, a close coupling between heart rate and respiratory frequency was reported [3,10]. There are conflicting reports concerning the influence of hypnosis on heart rate and other autonomic variables [4,5,8,21, 24±26].…”

Mindfulness training as an evidenced-based approach to reducing stress and promoting well-being among human services professionals

“…The didactic sections focused on: The impact of stress on the body, releasing tension in the body, imagery and creative visualization, and incorporating relaxation exercises into daily life. The experiential segments included a selection of widely used relaxation exercises utilized in relaxation and stress management training, including abdominal breathing (e.g., Forbes & Pekala 1993), progressive muscle relaxation (e.g., Baird & Sands 2004), imagery (e.g., Fors et al 2002), and a three minute calming breath.…”

Reducing distress in first level and student nurses: a review of the applied stress management literature

“…With a single exception (see Jones & Johnston 1998), effect sizes are not reported, and studies using physiological measurements generally fail to describe strategies used to control for additional confounding variables at this level of measurement (e.g. Fehring 1983, Forbes 1992, Heaman 1995).…”